1. Field of Technology
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is capable of displaying a job list.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some image forming apparatuses such as copiers or the like, the next job can be input as a reserved job before output of the previous job is complete and thus they include a so-called reserve function. Some of image forming apparatuses which include the reserve function have a function which displays the job numbers and status, the number of sheets to be printed, the required time and the like for the jobs that are on standby for output as the job list 501 on the job manager screen 500, as shown in FIG. 8. The job list 501 is used by the user to check the status of jobs that are on standby for output, select a job from the job list 501 and suspend it, delete it or to change the priority order as necessary.
In order to perform this type of determination accurately, just the information displayed on the job list is sometimes insufficient. Then, there are image forming apparatuses in which a details button 502a is provided in the job manager screen 500, and when the details button 502a is operated, detailed information for the job selected at that time is displayed by transferring to a different screen, or displayed on a different screen having popped up. (For example, see Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H8-307583).
Generally, the reserved jobs are normally executed in the order in which they are input, and in the case where there is no size or type of the paper that is set when the reserve job was input in the paper feeding tray when the job is being executed, the operations are usually conducted where the job is temporarily stopped, a warning is displayed and the apparatus waits until the user loads the specified paper. For this reason, in the case where there are many reserved jobs, if the jobs are executed in the order of input, it is sometimes necessary to frequently change the paper in the feeding tray. In these cases, the workload on the user increases and there is also a great reduction in work efficiency of the image forming apparatus due to the discontinuation of the output operation for the exchange operations.
In this case, the job, for which there is none of the paper that is specified as the output paper loaded in the paper feeding tray, may be selected from the job list and switched to the suspend status, but when a large number of jobs are registered on the job list, the workload becomes large for finding the relevant jobs and switching them to the suspend state. Thus, an image reading apparatus has been proposed which includes a function of extracting the jobs having the same specified output paper as that of the specified job, from the job list, and these jobs are transferred to the suspend state together (See Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-26992 for example).
In the image forming apparatus, there are often restrictions on the size of the display screen due to factors such as device cost and panel arrangement and the like, and thus it is difficult to significantly increase the information for each job displayed on the job list. In addition, in the configuration in which the detailed information for the job selected from the job list is transferred to a separate screen and displayed there, each time when the displayed information is checked, an operation for displaying on the separate screen as well as operation for returning to the original screen after checking is completed are necessary and there is a problem in that these operations are complex and cannot be performed quickly. Furthermore, the detailed information for the job selected in the job list and the job list cannot be viewed simultaneously, which was inconvenient.
In addition, the function of extracting the jobs having the same specified output paper as that of the specified job, from the job list, and transferring together these jobs to the suspend state is convenient, but there are restrictions in that the job cannot be extracted under arbitrarily selected conditions and the extracted job is merely transferred to the suspend state.
This invention was conceived in an attempt to solve the above problems and the first object of this invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that is capable of extracting the jobs having the same setting content as that of the specified job, and displaying the extracted jobs, while the second object is to provide an image forming apparatus which is capable of performing a batch operation for the extracted jobs.